Woven cord fabric



Feb. 21, 192 8. 1,659,680

A. BURNS WOVEN CORD FABRIC Filed July 6, 1925 Fig.1. Fig.2.

seam-T III lnvenTor.

Patented Feb. 21, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED BURNS, OF EASTHAMPTON,FLASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO WEST BOYLSTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF EASTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORA- TION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

WOVEN CORD FABRIC.

Application filed July 6, 1925.' Serial No. 41,666.

This invention relates to a cord fabric particularly for use in the manufacture of automobile tires. In such fabrics, it is desirable that the cords constituting the warps shall lie fiat and parallel throughout and be capable of being coated throughout their entire surfaces with the rubber composition usually employed. "When the fabric is coated with the usual rubber composition, a flat fabric layer is formed integrated by the rubber composition coating and it is important that the surfaces of the warps at both sides of the fabric shall be flat and even throughout so that the coating may be of the same thickness throughout and so that several layers of the fabric may be superposed in the manufacture of the tire and present a symmetrical arrangement.

Various expedients have been resorted to in endeavoring to produce a so-called fiat cord fabric with the cord warps lying substantially straight and parallel. One such expedient is that of including in the fabric a set of auxiliary or binder warps but to do this requires that the loom on which the fabric is Woven should be provided with two warp beams and it also involves the expense of a separate set of warpsand of the labor incurred in the fitting of the loom therewith, besides the additional expense of the weaving operation, all of which results in a rather expensive fabric.

It has also been attempted to produce the desirable flat arrangement of warps by subjecting the fabric after being woven to a high tension in the direction of the length of the warp. While this operation partially secures the desired result, yet it has the disadvantage that the warps are stretched to such an extent that they lose much of their inherent elasticity. This detracts from the value of the fabric for tire purposes.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a fabric of the required character whichshall be composed solely and en tirely of a set of cord warps and a set of wefts, and in which the cord warps shall be in a normal, unstretched condition, and thus have their full initial elasticity, and shall also he flat and parallel and in the same plane when the fabric is subjected to the normal tension to which cord fabric is subjected while being incorporated in a tire.

The nature and objects of the invention will appear more fully from the'accompanying description and drawings and will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view, on a much enlarged scale and somewhat distorted, of one face of a preferred form of fabric embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a similar view of the face of the fabric opposite to that shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a View in transverse cross section of the fabric shown in Figs. 1 and 2 with the face shown in Fig. 1 uppermost.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 of a slightly different form of the fabric embodying the invention.

The set of cord war s 1, 2, 3, etc, are preferably formed of eavy, cotton cord such as used in tire cord fabric manufacture. The set of wefts 50, 51, 52, etc., are formed of the usual fine am, as their sole purpose is to maintain t e cord war s in position in the fabric to an extent su cient to enable it to be coated with the required rubber composition and formed into a flat, integrated layer. These warps and wefts may, of course, vary in size and guality, excepting that the cord warps are a ways relaglltl'ely coarse and the wefts are relatively The wefts 50, 51, 52, etc.-, are widely spaced apart in the construction of the fab- IIC as usual in cord fabrics.

Each weft in the fabric passes over and under the warps and in so doing passes under a greater number of warps than it passes over. In the fabric shown in the drawings, each weft passes alternately over' one warp, warp2, see Fig. 3, and then floats under several warps, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and then passes over a warp, 7, and floats under several other war s, 8, 9, 10 and 11, this continuing in a pre etermined sequence. The points where the wefts pass over each warp are staggered with respect to the points where the wefts the warp 4 and are also staggered with respect to the point where the weft 54 passes over the warp 5 adjacent the other side of the warp 4, and this staggered arrangement runs throughout the fabric. It will be seen by reason of this construction that on the face of the fabric shown in Fig. 1, each warp is symmetrically .and reversely arranged with respect to each weft. That is to say, if, as assumed, each weft passes over one warp,

then under four warps, etc., there is a corresponding warp which passes under one Weft, then over four wefts, then under one weft, then over four wefts, etc. This means that on the face of the fabric shown in Fig. 1, each warp floats over several, as, for example, four, wefts and passes under one weft, while on the other face of the fabric shown in Fig. 2, each weft floats over several, as, for example, four, warps and passes under one warp, and that the floating portions of each warp, as shown in Fig. 1, are staggered with respect to the floating portions of the adjacent warps; while, as shown in Fig. 2, the floating portions of each weft are staggered with respect to the floating portions of the adjacent wefts.

The wefts lie in-the fabric under loose tension and the construction is such that substantially all the crimp in the interwoven threads comes in weft threads. 'It is a characteristic of the fabric embodying my invention that the warps are in a non stretched condition and yet they lie flat and parallel and in the same plane when the fabric is subjected to the normal tension to which cord fabric is usually subjected when being incorporated in the tire. The arrangement of warps and wefts above referred to provides for this. A decided advantage resulting from this construction and this characteristic feature is that, since the warps are not 1 abnormally stretched, they still retain all their inherent elastic characteristics, which are important in a cord fabric. Further more, since substantially all the crimp of the interwoven threads is in the filling threads, the warps will all lie in the same plane, and have the flat and parallel arrangement above referred to.

lVith my invention, therefore, the desirable flat arrangement of warps is secured wlthout sacrificing any of their initial strength or elasticpropertics.

The wefts also act in the structure of this fabric to secure the slight separation ofthe warps to permitthe coating composition L0 envelop the entire surface of the warps. But by reason of the arrangement set forth, it will be seen that the portions of the weft which extend between the warps occur only at intervals. For example, the warps 2 and 28am; separated only by the wefts 50, 53, 55,

The embodiment of this invention may be varied somewhat andsuch a variation is illustrated in Fig. 4, the difference between the two structures being somewhat similar to the. difference between a sateen and a twill weave.

It will thus be seen that by the principles of this invention involving the use of a set of coarse cord'warps and a set of relatively fine wefts, the separation of the wefts to a relatively great extent, or at least several diameters of the warps, the arrangement of the long floats in staggered relation of the warps at one face' and of the wefts at the other face and the loose tensioning of the weft, a fabric structure is secured involving only a single set of'warps and wefts in which the cord war s are in an unstretched condition and lie at and straight throughoutas requlred in a tire fabric.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, and desired to be secured .by Letters Patent, is:

1. A woven, cord fabric constructed readi ily to permit the application thereto of av rubber composition coating which shall cover the entire surface of each warp and present an integrated coated fabric layer in which the 'warps lie flat and parallel throughout, composed solely of a set of relatively coarse cord warps and a set of relawefts lying in the fabric under loose tension with the portions between the warps separating the warps slightly whlle the portions extending over and floating under the warps.

lie on the respective surfaces of the fabric 9 layer and permit the warps to lie flat and parallel throughout.

2. A woven cord fabric constructed readily to permit the application thereto of a 1 rubber composition coating which shall cover the entire surface of each warp and present an integrated coated fabric layer in which Y the warps lie flat and parallel throughout, composed solely of a set of relatively coarse non-crimped cord war s and a set of relatively fine wefts'arrange in parallelism, the wefts being widely spaced apart and each weft alternately floatin over-several adjacent warps at one face 0 the fabric and then passing under one warp with the adjacent floats in staggered relation, and

.each warp alternately floating over several adjacent wefts at the other face of the fabric and passing under one weft with the adjacent floats also in staggered relation and'the wefts lying in the fabric under loose tension maintaining the warps slightly separated and said warps being as non-stretched condition and lying flat and parallel throughout.

3. A woven cord fabric for automobile tires, composed entirely of interwoven weft threads and non-crimped cord warps, each weft thread passing over one warp and then under a plurality of adjacent warps, the warps which any weft threads passes over being different warps from those which any three adjacent weft threads pass over said warps when under normal tension, and in a non-stretched condition, lyin in the same plane, straight and parallel, an substantially all of the crimp of the interwoven threads being in the weft threads.

4. A cord fabric for automobile tires composed entirely of interwoven weft threads and non-crimped cord warps, the number of warps which each weft passes under during the weaving operation being greater than the number which it passes over, the space between adjacent points on any warp thread where it is crossed by a weft thread being several times greater than the space between adjacent weft threads, said warps when under normal tension and in a non-stretched,

ing all in the same lanefistraight and parallel, and substantia y a the crimp of the y all interwoven threads being in the filling threads, the adjacent points where each weft passes from the upper face of the fabric to the lower face thereof being separated by at least three war threads and each warp thread lying on t e-same side of 'at least three adjacent weft threads between the points where it is interlaced with the weft threads.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

ALFRED BURNS. 

